UFC 90 adds Fabricio Werdum vs Junior dos Santos

Fabricio Werdum says in a video interview (in Portuguese) that he's probably facing Junior dos Santos at UFC 90. And he affirms that if he beats him, he'll be the next challenger for the heavyweight belt.

They are justgiving him a "can" so that he stays busy and doesnt have a long layoff from now until he fights for the title, which could backfire on them big time. The should have gave him another contenders so in case he looses at least now they've got a new #1 contenders, now if looses to a nobody they just lost the #1 contender and didnt create another one, in which case the Winner of Herring/Lesnar will probably get the shot. Still small chance Werdum will loose, i say first round KO, or sub.

MMAcca

7/29/08 1:45:00PM

Werdum close to title shot

After two good victories at UFC, Fabrício Werdum is now close to see his biggest a dream becoming true. Doing his last fight under contract with Ultimate, Werdum told TATAME that he has already made a new five fights contract, where an important clause says: winning his next fight, he’ll earn a title shot. “I was going to fight at October 18th at London, but I made a new five fights contract and they changed it to October 25th at Chicago, probably against Junior Cigano. It’s not 100% right that I’ll face him, but I’ll surely fight at October 25th”, said Werdum, that wants Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira to win his next fight (against Frank Mir) to rematch the Pride confront on 2006, that ended with Nogueira’s unanimous decision victory.

“It’s my last fight under the old contract and, with a victory, my first new contract’s fight will be for the title. I deserve that, I’m training hard for that, I wanna be UFC heavyweight champion. A final against Minotauro would be like a dream, it would be great for me, because I fought against him at Pride and it was a great fight, he deserved the victory, and I wanna say that fighting for the belt against Minotauro, probably on March”, said Werdum, that commented Fedor Emelianenko’s fast victory at Affliction.

“I knew that Fedor would win, I didn’t believe that Tim Sylvia has the perfect game to beat him, because he (Fedor) already showed that on the ground he’s great and knocks everybody out standing up… If I were going to fight against him, I’d try to stay over him, like I did with his brother, hurt him standing up and let the fight to the ground, bring on top, because he’s not fool on the ground”, told Werdum, that wants to fight for more four years. “I’m 31 now and wanna fight for more three or four years, and I wanna be the UFC champion”, finishes the athlete.

I think he will win his next fight comfortably then he will lose to NOG via UD after an exciting back fourth 5 round fight.

KYGUY07

7/29/08 3:25:21PM

werdum will submit santos quickly

Twenty20Dollars

7/29/08 4:08:21PM

I guess this works, to give werdum a no name to keep him in shape for a title shot. if he wants the easy road to the title unlike thiago alves.

JackHammerXXX

7/29/08 4:59:20PM

welterweight has alot more contenders, than the HW division does. Werdum beat Gonzaga(I don't care if he seemed scared, and alil shell shocked from the Couture fight), he TKO'd him for that matter, then he humbled Vera(I didn't approve whole-heartedly with the stoppage, nor Vera's reaction to the mount/pounding), now if there was a top 10 system for each division, I think Vera and Gonzaga would qualify, prolly even in top 5, close. Now, this Junior Santos guy? I'm a be honest...never heard of him. Appears like a give me, but hey, at least he's fighting. Yes,I agree that Thiago Alves has a streak going right now, of fighting nothing but top tier guys. So, no, Fabricio is not taking the same road the Pitbull is. With that said, Thiago was informed he would be after Fitch for GSP's title. If he hadn't had another weight mishap in the Hughes fight, maybe he would have gotten a give me too? Like I said, the Welterweight division has more contenders, and more guys that are fighting for that shot. Heavyweight is settling for Werdum. Arlovski would be a king now, if Dana would have gave him what he wanted(Apparently 750 grand! I don't think so)

Wolfgang666

5/23/10 11:58:08AM

Posted by JackHammerXXX

welterweight has alot more contenders, than the HW division does. Werdum beat Gonzaga(I don't care if he seemed scared, and alil shell shocked from the Couture fight), he TKO'd him for that matter, then he humbled Vera(I didn't approve whole-heartedly with the stoppage, nor Vera's reaction to the mount/pounding), now if there was a top 10 system for each division, I think Vera and Gonzaga would qualify, prolly even in top 5, close. Now, this Junior Santos guy? I'm a be honest...never heard of him. Appears like a give me, but hey, at least he's fighting. Yes,I agree that Thiago Alves has a streak going right now, of fighting nothing but top tier guys. So, no, Fabricio is not taking the same road the Pitbull is. With that said, Thiago was informed he would be after Fitch for GSP's title. If he hadn't had another weight mishap in the Hughes fight, maybe he would have gotten a give me too? Like I said, the Welterweight division has more contenders, and more guys that are fighting for that shot. Heavyweight is settling for Werdum. Arlovski would be a king now, if Dana would have gave him what he wanted(Apparently 750 grand! I don't think so)

Look how a couple years changes things. HW is briming with new challengers like Dos Santos while WW is stagnant and recycling the same no-chancers to fight GSP simply because there literally are no other good 170 pound fighters on the planet that GSP wouldn't manhandle in a complete one sided assraping.

This may actually be because WW is a better division over all at the very top with a more talented fighter ruling, leading to the sitatuion we have now where a bunch of other talented fighters still have no shot to beat GSP, while the parity at HW is a result of the entire division being made of athletic rookies with under 5 years of MMA experience, making HW fights more compelling simply because the fighters at the bottom of the top ten are equal in skill and experience to the fighters at the top(minus Fedor). HW also has the one-punch factor going for it. I think every top ten fighter has legit one punch KO power besides Werdum right now, depending on the top ten.

I am a big critic of WW, and Jon Fitch, but if we blew Fitch up to 259 pounds, he'd never lose.

MaxOne

5/23/10 5:44:51PM

what a trip...i read this thread back then. I just read it all again right now. Pretty crazy how drastically things can change.

BustedKnuckle

5/23/10 9:59:33PM

Almost wanted to flame the guy bringing back a thread from 08 but it makes you think how the faces of Elite MMA change and evolve! Cigano is now at the top of the division, and Werdum is takeing paychecks from a different org! Kinda crazy but IIWII!!!! Its why i lobve this sport so much. So much hinges on one fight and guys kill themselves to acomplish greatness.

EDIT: Also maybe needs to be moved to the lounge ......seeing as it isn't realy news anymore!?

emfleek

5/24/10 9:11:08AM

Posted by BustedKnuckle

EDIT: Also maybe needs to be moved to the lounge ......seeing as it isn't realy news anymore!?